1868.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST 
331 
Fig. 1. —cockscomb.—( Celosia cristaia.) 
The Amaranth Family. 
The name Amaranth means undying, and 
has been applied by ancients and moderns in 
poetry without meaning any particular flower. 
The Amaranth Family of the botanist comprises 
many plants that would hardly find a place in 
poetry, or even in horticulture, for it includes 
several very unpleasant weeds. Yet for a cer¬ 
tain kind of decoration, that of large grounds, 
the Amaranth family comes in play. We db 
not propose to go into a botanical description 
of these plants, for their characters need enlarged 
figures. Their general habit .is known by sev¬ 
eral homely weeds, and that of the ornamental 
section by that common ornament of country 
door-yards, the Love-lies-bleeding. Of the cul¬ 
tivated members of the family, perhaps none is 
better known than the Cockscomb, (Celosia cris- 
tata ), which has attained the dignity of a florist’s 
flower. In the English shows the Cockscomb 
plays an important part, and wonderful ac¬ 
counts are given of the size of its singu¬ 
larly aggregated heads. Other Celosias 
are grown in which the flowers are not 
compacted as in the Cockscomb. The 
genus which gives the name to the family 
Amarantus (the family is called Amaran- 
tacece) comprises not only some troublesome 
weeds but some ornamental plants. Ama¬ 
rantus speciosus is a native of Nepaul, and 
forms dense, dark red, or purplish heads, 
piled up in the manner shown in the en¬ 
graving. For large grounds it makes a fine 
show late in autumn. An old plant, which 
has been crowded out by others of less 
merit, is the “Joseph’s Coat,” ( Amaran¬ 
tus tricolor ,) which in its foliage presents 
red, green, and yellow. In the demand for 
plants with brilliant foliage we do not 
know why this old friend has been over¬ 
looked, for there is nothing more showy. 
Perhaps being an annual, the florists, as it 
“will not cut,” have not encouraged its 
cultivation. Among the Amaranths is the 
Amarantus sanguineus, which has a beauti¬ 
ful dark red foliage, and which well de¬ 
serves a place among ornamental plants. All 
of the Amaranths are annuals, and their seeds 
are to be had of the 
seedsmen. We men¬ 
tion them now as 
this is their season 
of bloom. The en¬ 
gravings we have 
given of Celosia cris- 
tata, Amarantus spe¬ 
ciosus, and A. tri¬ 
color, are from draw¬ 
ings by the great 
French artist, Rio- 
creux, and are as 
close representatives 
of the plants as can 
be,without the color. 
The plants of this 
natural family all 
bear the highest cul¬ 
ture, flourishing best 
in deep, well-enrich¬ 
ed soil, in the hot 
sun. After getting 
a good start they 
rapidly take and 
hold possession of 
the ground, disput¬ 
ing it with our most 
ravenous and hardy 
weeds. Those therefore, the seeds of which sur¬ 
vive the winter in the soil, are sometimes, like 
the genuine weeds of the family, a little trouble¬ 
some, but are easily subdued. So tenacious 
Fig. 3.—AMAEANTUS SPECIOSUS. 
of life are they that plants barely in blossom 
will, if cutup, in many cases ripen their seeds. 
Fig. 2.— Joseph’s coat .—{Amarantus tricolor.) 
The Fault of Town Gardening’. 
In our travels about the country we notice 
one glaring fault in all the town and village 
flower gardens, and that we can express by no 
more appropriate name than “legginess.” 
Everything is run up and drawn up to its ut¬ 
most, with the exception of those plants which 
do better when trained up, and they are left to 
branch frombelow at will. Let us take as two 
examples, the Pelargonium (Geranium) and 
Heliotrope, which are among the most common 
plants set out for garden decoration. The gera¬ 
niums, whether the rose geranium, grown for its 
fragrant leaves, or some of those prized for the 
brilliancy of their flowers, or the showiness of 
their variegated foliage, are often badly winter¬ 
ed plants, a tuft here and there of foliage set 
upon long, leggy branches, which never come 
into shapely plants. In plants like these, people 
seem to lack courage to pinch. There is noth¬ 
ing more tractable than a Pelargonium 
(geranium) of any kind. A house-grown 
plant may be made a dense bush by pinch¬ 
ing, and a bit of a plant received from the 
green-house in spring may be left to grow 
into a “ leggy,” shapeless thing, or may be 
made, by proper pinching, to 4 assume a 
pleasing form. Many people who grow 
plants and love them, lack the courage to 
do that which will be for the plants’ good. 
A neighbor of ours has a lot of plants, all 
at sixes and sevens, and though we almost 
daily advise the use of the knife, he lacks 
the courage or the faith to apply it. The 
Heliotrope, when put out, often becomes a 
nuisance. Some branches start out near 
the base and grow a long distance before 
they show signs of flowering. Keep the 
Heliotrope pinched in as to its lower 
branches, growing it as a little shrub, and 
it will give an abundance of flowers all 
summer. By proper attention to the plant 
in the borders it may be kept in a good 
shape for potting for winter flowering, but 
as generally grown, it has a great num¬ 
ber of long, weak branches at the base, and 
when it is potted in fall it is usually 'worthless. 
Timely care is the price of comely plants. 
